Woman walks out into the sunlight

By Naomi Schemm, Journal Staff Writer | Friday, June 24, 2005

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RAPID CITY -- Liddy Rohrbach wasn't going to ride out of Black Hills Rehabilitation Hospital in any wheelchair.

On Thursday, she walked — aided by a walker — from her second-floor room, down the elevator and out the front door, where she was greeted by her cheering co-workers from Casey Peterson & Associates.

It was an emotional triumph for the woman who only a few months ago lay completely paralyzed and dependent on a ventilator to breathe. Her co-workers held a sign saying "We love you Liddy" and released balloons into the sunny June sky.

"I've never seen such love," Rohrbach said tearfully to the group.

Rohrbach, 44, was in rehab hospital for almost two months before her release on Thursday. She was in Rapid City Regional Hospital for nearly three months before that because of a rare syndrome called Guillain-Barre Syndrome, or GBS.

But now she has returned to her home in Hill City and hopes to return to her job as a billing administrator at the Rapid City accounting firm as soon as September.

"I have to thank my employer, Casey Peterson & Associates, for all that they did for me," Rohrbach said with emotion just before her release. "They supplied me continually with e-mails, visits, gifts of encouragement, and really supported me through the whole illness, to the point of keeping my job open. There's not many employers that will go to that extent. It's really awesome."

Nearly all of the firm's employees came to help celebrate, and more than a few needed tissues when she appeared.

"That's just the kind of person Liddy is," her employer, Casey Peterson, said. "We're just glad to see her out."

GBS is a rare autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks the protective fatty sheath surrounding the nerves, causing interference with the signals from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles.

"It's a paralysis that starts in your feet, and it works its way up your body to the point of affecting your sight," Rohrbach said. "It's a rare disease that strikes people that have just had a viral infection."

Doctors don't know why GBS strikes some people and not others. About 1 in 100,000 people get it annually, regardless of age or gender. In January, Rohrbach was sick with a strain of the influenza virus. She was in the hospital with GBS on Feb. 3 and worsened quickly.

Rohrbach's case was one of the most serious cases doctors had seen, she said. Some people only suffer muscle weakness or painful tingling sensations in the limbs. She was paralyzed and dependent on a ventilator for about two months. In the hospital, she was in intensive care for about a month and in pulmonary progressive care for about two months.

"It was extremely scary, painful," Rohrbach said. "Sometimes, it seemed as though I would never get better."

The difficulty in communication was especially trying for her.

"I had to point and make gestures and use an ABC chart to spell out what I wanted," she said. "Eventually, I could use an electrolarynx, which was better but (still) very frustrating."

GBS has no cure, but doctors can use two different treatments to lessen the severity and speed recovery. Immunoglobulin treatment, or IVIG, involves receiving an IV of high doses of healthy antibodies, and plasmapheresis is a sort of "blood cleansing," where blood is taken out of the body, and the white and red blood cells are returned to the body without the plasma. However, doctors aren't sure exactly why or how the latter treatment helps.

The treatments simply stopped the destruction of Rohrbach's nerves. Then it was a slow wait for the sheath around the nerves to regenerate, accompanied by plenty of physical therapy to keep her body healthy while she heals.

"They've done a great job in building my muscular strength throughout my body," Rohrbach said of the hospital and rehab staff. "I have progressed quicker than they expected. ... After two months, here I am now walking, something I wasn't sure I would ever do."

At home, a nurse, physical therapist and occupational therapist will still visit to give her outpatient treatment.

"Her determination has brought her a long ways," Peterson said, and Liddy said her nurses and therapists would agree.

Liddy's mother, Janet Flynn of Rapid City, had one more credit to give.

"My daughter's a fighter, and I believe in miracles," Flynn said.